We believe that there is no algorithm for leadership and so we interview great sports coaches from around the world to try and find ideas to help all of us lead our families, our colleagues, and our teams better.

The best ideas from those interviews are in this newsletter.

We hope you find one or two things here that you can bring to your dinner table, locker room or boardroom table for discussion.

Latest Interview

Catch the full interview now: Apple | Spotify  | Google

Our Great Coach this week is Kelly Sheffield, current head coach of the University of Wisconsin's women's volleyball team, the Wisconsin Badgers.

With over 30 years of coaching under his belt (he took on his first assistant coaching role at the University of Houston in 1997 and became a head coach for the first time in 2001 at the University of Albany), Kelly has been referred to as the 'Comeback Coach' for his work transforming Wisconsin's Badgers into an NCAA powerhouse. Since starting with the team in 2012, he has led them to 5 Big 10 Championships, 4 NCAA Final Fours and the 2021 NCAA Championship.

Unlike some of the coaches that we have interviewed for this podcast, Kelly Sheffield did not have a background of playing professional volleyball before he became a coach; it was his experience coaching volleyball at summer camps and his high school that helped to launch him into his successful career.

Kelly Sheffield brought a very upbeat and optimistic outlook to our interview, and shared a number of points that should resonate with all leaders and coaches.

Some highlights of the episode include:

• Kelly’s view on the importance of environment, and how it enables the teaching of life lessons at critical points in people’s lives.

• The need to establish a balance between optimism and positivity against just cheerleading, and the rubber band trick he uses as an illustration for this players.

• How the mood of the coach impacts the mentality of the team, and the importance of removing such worries from players.

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Leadership Insights

Becky Burleigh is an American soccer coach who recently retired after 26 years leading the University of Florida Gators; at the point of her retirement she had a winning percentage of 75, and ranks second amongst Division I coaches in terms of total all time wins.

In this clip from our interview, she speaks about the pressures that leaders and coaches can feel to prioritise and use their time correctly, and explains why she feels that no task should ever be considered more valuable than bringing her best energy to her team.

If you like this, you can find more than 1200 other insight videos on our website, covering a variety of leadership topics such as setting up new team cultures, establishing team values, or helping others with their inner voice.

All of the insights are indexed, searchable, and can be downloaded to share. Some may require a one-time purchase or subscription - check the individual insight’s description for more information.

_{Leadership Skills}

For this section of the newsletter, we usually focus on one particular skill - listening, communicating, reflecting, etc. - that we can build and develop in order to better leaders for our teams, communities, and families.

This week, we’re looking at ‘skills’ as a whole: how to train them, develop them, recognise and utilise them.

For this lesson, we’ve compiled audio and video clips from interviews with several Great Coaches, each touching on skill acquisition and development. As always, the coaches share valuable advice and experience, including:

• How to use a ‘skills matrix’ to understand what skills are present within your team.

• Finding strengths and how to work with them.

• Ways to help athletes separate their performance from their results, and techniques for managing the ‘anxiety gap’.

• Training methods and techniques that can be used to help your team execute fundamentals in an uncommonly good way.

Want to find more content like this? You can find lessons on a wide range of leadership-related themes and topics on our website:

_Ideas

This week I want to share a fantastic article from The Athletic that provides deep insight into the philosophy, leadership, and legacy of Great Coach and England manager Sarina Wiegman.

The first coach to lead the English Lionesses to a major title with their 2022 UEFA Euro win, Sarina is widely considered to be one of the best international coaches in women’s football (or soccer).

Before working with England, Sarina successfully led the Netherlands team to a UEFA Euro victory in 2017 (earning the title of ‘Best FIFA Women’s Coach’), and to the finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019.

_{Elevate Your Leadership}

Elevated Leadership’s coaches have lived and led teams in multiple countries, allowing them to see leadership from numerous and diverse perspectives.

We understand the challenge of having to step forward in times of uncertainty as well as the pressure that arises from having to manage time, people, and expectations.

Get in touch today at [email protected] if you would like to know more.

Partners

This newsletter is brought to you by Macquarie University Business School’s MBA program. Designed to empower, challenge and transform, the Macquarie MBA gives you the business skills and knowledge you need to succeed in an evolving global economy.

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school

_{Contact Us}

If you have any feedback or if you would like to speak to us directly feel free to contact us at [email protected].